Technical > Overclocking / Modding > i7 Gaming System Critique

i7 Gaming System Critique

Appreciate the tip.
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Purple Drink

reply to sapo
"Please tell me if you feel I have made a mistake worthy enough of me returning the part."

No, it looks fine.

reply to sapo
Yeah it looks fine to me too. Recently I have been suggesting that people hold off a bit to see where the price performance range of the upcoming Core i7 930 falls but I suspect that it wont be earth shattering either way. There is a possibility that you’ll get a slightly faster stock part in the Core i7 930 over the Core i7 920 for approximately the same price but it probably isn’t worth returning a part for if you already have it.

Presumably the Core i7 930 is due for release before the end of February the way I hear it but again nothing to lose any sleep over.

Overall the prices you’re listing look fairly good.

reply to sapo
Your build is fine and should serve you well.

The only thing I might have considered doing differently would have been to get the P6X58D Deluxe Mb.

The P6X58D helps to passively keep the i7 920 cooler than what you might see on the P6T and second it has the SATA 3 & USB 3 ports on it. No biggie; since you might be able to add cards to include SATA 3 & USB 3 support later.

Personally, as for SSD's I'll wait for SSD's that come with SATA 3 performance, the SSD's with SATA II will likely drop in price substantially.

I will tell you that I have built 3 systems using pretty much your configuration, and I've been able to OC them all to 3.8 / 3.9 without having to bump the voltages, on air using an antec 1200 case and Thermalright 120 black cooler with a single 38x120 mm fan that pushes about 114 CFM.
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---Barney

Hmm, yeah that would have been some solid planning but I am not much of an early adopter. Whatever the combination of parts may be I think it should blow my AMD Athlon 3400+ out of the water .
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Purple Drink

Personally, I would save myself the trouble and get the 5850. Why? There's nothing wrong with your current option of the 4890, however, it's not a DX11 part (not a deal breaker since there's next to no DX11 games out right now... Dirt 2 if you like Rally). There is something wrong with going from a 4890 to a 5770:
1. The 5770 is a replacement part for the 4770 which brings us to point 2.
2. The 4890 is faster so switching to the 5770 is basically a downgrade besides that the 5770 is a DX11 SKU.
3. Lets say you are not selling the 4890 and just move to the 5770, you will end up spending about just as you would spend on a 5850 right now.
4. By getting the 5850, you automatically get the performance you "eventually" want and what's more is it's already a DX11 part.

reply to sapo
What?????

You are going to do something more than a little bit of internet surfing and some email???

By all means, build a fire breathing monster!!!
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---Barney

reply to sapo
Oh, and if you've not seen this... there's a new vid card that might suit you well... I've not completely digested all the technical guts yet.

»www.tomshardware.com/reviews/rad···564.html
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---Barney

reply to sapo
These are great posts, really appreciate the input. I really wasn't aware of the 930 nor that 5830 but I doubt those would give me significant gain right now for what I need to spend on them. However, my 920 will still be unopened until March so who knows.
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Purple Drink

Well Intel has been doing something that many of us don’t particularly care for. Basically Intel has been keeping the Core i7 product line pricing static while replacing parts. This means that the Core i7 920 should technically cost the same as a Core i7 930 in much the same way the Core i7 940 was replaced with an equally priced Core i7 950.

Naturally I think most of us would prefer to have the parts remain in production but be reduced in price thus making them more accessible and cheaper over time.

The Core i7 920 has remained almost the same price for over a year (~$280 to ~$300 with the acceptation of the ~$199.99 Microcenter price).

As for the HD 5830 it is as far as I can tell a paper launch since the hardware doesn’t seem to be available. The Anandtech review I read suggested that the 5830 should have been a ~$200 part. I for one would have liked to have seen the HD 5830 handily outperform the GTX275 which it doesn’t seem to do.

Anyway, neither part is available so,…..

Yeah, I was surprised to see the same price for the 930 but I did receive the microcenter one and I would be very surprised if the 930 started out at that price over there.

I hear you on the new graphics cards, the low end 5000 series cards have been a big disappointment to me. I just didn't find any real advantage to go with them other than DX11 so I decided to hold onto my cash and let the DX11 market develop some more.

Thanks for the insight
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Purple Drink

For what its worth, the first Core i7 930 review I have come across:

»www.bit-tech.net/hardware/cpus/2···review/1

Again, nothing to worry about. Not sure what Microcenter prices are yet but Newegg prices cite a $10 delta.

I have a Core i7 920 too and I’m not worried about it, although I have had it for over a year

The Microcenter closest to me doesn't have the 930 yet but just looking at the raw specs it did not interest me anyway. I doubt the 930 will be available at the price of my 920 for a while so no worries here. Thanks for the update.
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Purple Drink